1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to the field of file systems using extended attributes.
2. Background Art
In the prior art, several operating systems support the concept of extended attributes (EA). Usually, the extended attributes of the prior art are used for storing "attributes" or the contents of a database.
A prior art method, disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,218,696 issued to Baird, et al. on Jun. 8, 1993, implements a method for dynamically expanding and rapidly accessing file directories in a UNIX tree-based file directory system. The technique provides name-oriented accessing of files having at least zero records, any access path to files and records through an external store coupling the computer being defined by a pair of related directories. An attribute directory of record entries is sorted on a two-part token. The token consists of a unique serial number assigned to the record and the unique serial number of any parent record entry. Each record entry includes the token, file or record name, and external store address or pointer. The name directory is a subset of the attribute directory. A traverse through the tokens constitutes a leaf-searchable B-tree. The names directory provides fast access into the attribute directory. Thus, Baird, et al., is directed to a method for dynamically expanding and rapidly accessing file directories. However, the prior art lacks an architecture of extended attributes for providing improved file system management, maintenance, and control by creating and storing a database inside the extended attributes.
Another prior art method, disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,113,519 issued to Johnson, et al. on May 12, 1992, implements a system and method for maintaining file attributes at a server data processing system in a distributed data processing system. The file attributes include file size, modify time, and access time. The system and method provides a protocol that allows processes in the distributed environment to access a file. A file is accessed either through system calls or through a mechanism mapping the file to the address space of each process. Thus, the attributes of the files are distributed to all of the interested processes. The attributes are maintained separately and independently from each of the other attributes in the distributed environment. Johnson, et al., is directed to a system and method for maintaining file sizes, modify times, and access times at a server data processing system in a distributed data processing system. However, the prior art lacks an architecture of extended attributes for providing improved file system management, maintenance, and control by creating and storing a database inside the extended attributes.
While the prior art allows an extended attribute to be named and can store information, it fails to define an architecture for storing information in the extended attributes. Thus, the prior art does not provide high performance file management using extended attributes.